- Popular staking platform Lido has decided to halt operations on the Solana blockchain
- The decision was reached after a community vote
- Lido blames poor uptake for the move
Leading staking platform Lido has announced a decision to sunset its services on the Solana blockchain citing poor uptake from the blockchain’s community. The decision was reached after the Lido DAO was convinced that the staking network wasn’t generating enough funds to keep it afloat on the SOL-powered protocol. Lido said it won’t be onboarding new users from October 16, a sign that firms are ready to make harsh decisions to help cope with the current market downturn.
Provide Funding or Shutdown?
According to Lido, the other option was to provide ”1.5 million DAI” to cover “development expenses […] support adoption initiatives […] and set up a customer support service that meets industry standards.”
After extensive DAO discussion followed by community vote, the sunsetting of Lido on Solana was approved by LDO holders and will begin shortly.
More information here: https://t.co/MyImL1qpap
— Lido (@LidoFinance) October 16, 2023
The proposal noted that the platform isn’t generating enough fees to cover its expenses, adding that the community was free to either approve the funding request or decide to sunset services on Solana “to prevent generating losses.”
With the community voting to shut down operations on Solana, the Lido team announced that the process will take roughly four months starting October 16 to around February 4, 2024. The process started with Lido blocking new staking deposits followed by off-boarding node operators and users unstaking their tokens.
The key dates are as follows:
– Oct 16, 2023: Staking will be discontinued and no new stake will be accepted.
– Nov 17, 2023: Voluntary node operator off-boarding will begin.
– Feb 4, 2024: Lido on Solana Frontend support will conclude.
— Lido (@LidoFinance) October 16, 2023
Lido noted that after February 4, it’ll no longer support a designated user interface to aid in unstaking and users will rely on a command line interface (CLI).
$700K Investment, $220K Revenue
The staking protocol team has spent $700,000 and made around $220,000, necessitating a discussion on whether or not to keep the platform running.
This isn’t the first such move since it has in the past halted operations on Polkadot and Kusama. However, its exit from Solana leaves Lido active only on Ethereum and Polygon.
Although Lido still thrives on Ethereum, its exit from Solana aligns with measures taken by other crypto-focused firms to stay afloat in a difficult market.
